


Same Direction

by poetanarchy



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M, happy afterlife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 21:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13221930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetanarchy/pseuds/poetanarchy
Summary: Athelstan waits for Ragnar in the afterlife, which is a lot different than either of them had believed.





	Same Direction

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Hoobastank's Same Direction: https://youtu.be/c_UOL1-weMc

_I'd like to think that I can go my own way and meet you in the end._

\---

The afterlife is not quite what Athelstan had imagined. Heaven, it seemed is different for each soul. Athelstan's met angels, he's sat at the feet of Christ. He's met with friends who had long passed. To his surprise, Gyda is there and it warms his heart. From speaking with her, he knew that her experience had been more akin to Valhalla. Even if all the stories hadn't been entirely accurate. She's happy, he believes and eager to be reunited with her family when the time is right. They often met and talked and ate together. Gyda still liked to listen to his stories, liked to ask questions and sometimes he felt more complete when she was with him.

But his Heaven is incomplete a piece of his soul still on Earth. The years don't pass so slowly in Heaven.

Time is wiled away in art, music and company. The home he has in Heaven is almost identical to the small farm house that he had been brought to what was a life time ago.

Sometimes, Athelstan sees glimpses of Ragnar's life. He doesn't always understand but he can see the unhappiness. He can feel how unhinged he is and then later how tired he had become. Even in Heaven, a pang of sadness and longing would often fill him. In those times, his heart, his soul would reach out to the missing piece, calling to the part of himself that is Ragnar's.

It takes far too long and yet no time at all for that fateful day. Athelstan feel it happen. He feels Ragnar die. It's an odd sensation to feel someone die when you're already in the afterlife -- are you sad, happy? Somehow the emotions are there together all at once before the sadness starts to fade away.

\---

Athelstan's standing outside of that little farmhouse with Gyda when Ragnar arrives. When Ragnar first came up the small path Gyda had exclaimed and ran to greet her father. The reunion had been joyous and Athelstan watched quietly, the way he had so often Ragnar with his family. He wants to run to him as well but he doesn't and instead a contented smile is on his lips. He feels whole again.

"Athelstan," is the only word spoken when he made it up the path. Gyda already is ducking into the farm house to get a meal ready, leaving the two men to a private reunion, perhaps on purpose or perhaps some instinct. Ragnar's hand had come to rest on Athelstan's cheek, staring at him as if he could hardly believe the vision before him. "We were both wrong," he smiles, referring to their discussions of Heaven and Valhalla. This place is something far better in it's odd simplicity and mixture of everything that either of them had ever believed in.

There is a smile on Athelstan's lips, a more true one than had been there since his death, when he was waiting, waiting. "You took so long to get here," he teased him, raising a hand to cover Ragnar's, pulling it away from his cheek but holding it for longer than would have been necessary. "Come, Gyda will have the food on the table by now."

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be writing a follow up smutty reunion addition to this sometime soon!


End file.
